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Girls seem to be naturally attracted to arts and crafts, but boys are sometimes a different matter. If you’re running a summer camp, holding a crafts party or just want to get your sons involved in a neat project, you may be scratching your head when it comes to craft ideas. Fortunately, there are several categories of crafts that attract boys of all ages.

Nature Crafts
Nature crafts are a good choice for boys. This allows them to go out into the wilderness and gather the materials.

A great nature craft idea is “Forest Friends.” These crafts are easy to make and will allow the boys to work off some of that excess energy. Take them to the park and ask them to gather leaves, twigs and pinecones.

When you return back home from the park, let the boys decorate their finds with googly eyes and puff balls. Use Gorilla Glue or another multi-purpose glue that will adhere to the natural surfaces. Make faces on the leaves and pinecones, and then attach the twigs for bodies. You can make limbs from construction paper and the boys will have nature-inspired puppets to play with for the rest of the day.

Character Crafts
Boys like creating crafts that help them pretend they are their favorite heroes and characters. Pirates are very popular these days, so any pirate-related crafts will be well received. You can provide the supplies to make a construction paper or sewn felt eye patches, depending on the age of the boys.

Every pirate needs a parrot, so there’s another simple craft idea. Use old toilet paper tubes, feathers and markers so each boy can have a personal parrot sidekick. Boys will also enjoy making treasure chests from old shoeboxes and treasure maps to find their loot from paper bags and markers.

Science Crafts.
If you have an older group of boys to entertain with crafts, don’t underestimate the power of science-themed crafts. These crafts are part science experiment, part craft. One example of a science themed craft is invisible writing. For this craft, you’ll need a laxative tablet, one tablespoon of rubbing alcohol, cotton balls and ammonia.

Crush the tablet into a container and then add the alcohol. Have the boys use paintbrushes to create their secret messages. As the ink dries, it will disappear. To see the message, simple have them rub the pieces of paper with cotton balls soaked in ammonia. It’s not the most pleasant smelling craft, but it sure is a lot of fun!

As long as you keep boys active and engaged, they’ll have as much fun with crafts as girls do. Although they aren’t patient enough for beaded lanyards, they have activities and interests that can engage them just as much. So before you assume that boys and crafts just don’t mix, try some of these ideas.

Jamie Jefferson writes for Momscape.com, where she shares online coupons for discount art supplies: http://www.momscape.com/coupon-codes/dick-blick.htm and discount craft supplies: http://www.momscape.com/coupon-codes/joann-fabrics.htm

Sewing has been around for thousands of years in one form or another. Throughout the last millennium, the greatest technological advancements to the sewing machine has been the types of materials that are used to make sewing needles as well as threads.

It was not until the nineteenth century, that a working sewing machine was created. To no ones big surprise, it caused an uproar. Unfortunately, in a less than positive way.

The Discovery

Sewing by hand is almost intuitive. Two separate pieces of cloth, a thread and a needle, the relationship between them is obvious. The movement comes quite naturally of the needle through the cloth and then back again is completed automatically.

The difficulty is that the basic movement that is so easy for a person doing it by hand is impossible for the same movement attempted by a machine. It has the ability to force the threaded needle down through the cloth yet it cannot let go of it up again on the other side of the cloth and push it back through the other side.

The initial patent that was filed for a sewing machine part that had the ability to replicate that movement was filed in the year 1755 and others soon followed yet no functioning machine was developed until the year 1830.

The first fully functioning machine with various sewing machine parts was created by Bathelemy Thimonnier, who was a French tailor. The sewing machine part utilized a hooked needle as well as a single thread to make a chain stitch. The fear of ending up obsolete overwhelmed a mob of other French tailors in the country who ended up burning down Thimonniers factory.

How It Works

The sewing machine part that makes a chain stitch can be found below the fabric. A needle thread near it’s point pushes down through the material and the unique hooked end catches the thread and then pulls it up into a loop prior to it letting go.

After that the next stitch places more thread within the loop and the hooked piece pulls the initial stitch tightly which makes the next loop. While such a device saves people a lot of work, it can just create a straight seam that can be pulled loose if any part of thread breaks.

The sewing machine part which adds to the functionality of the home machine is the bobbin which puts in a second thread and then attaches to the first. This has the effect of making a lock stitch, which, as the name suggests, is many time more secure.

Even though this kind of sewing machine part is the discovery that actually made sewing by machine possible, each subsequent sewing machine part made its mark in history. Newer sewing machine additions include parts that make the fabric move forward, make zig-zag stitch, control the length of the stitch and so on have resulted in extraordinary advances in modern sewing.

Listen to Corbin Newlyn as he shares his insights as an expert author and an avid writer in the field of home improvement. If you would like to learn more go to http://www.sewingfunstuffpro.com/ and at http://www.sewingfunstuffpro.com/sewing-kit/

No one really knows when or where paper filigree actually started. However, it is believed that it did develop very soon after paper was invented. Since precious metals were used to create ornate ironworks and latticework, the art of rolling paper was intended to replicate the same designs in a simpler and smaller fashion. Because paper does not age very well and can be destroyed when it gets wet, there are not very many surviving examples of filigree designs from paper.

The belief that this art form originated in religious institutions, such as monasteries and convents, is quite possible. These institutions were considered to be places of learning and scholars. The people spent a lot of their time preparing religious books with gilded edges. They them trimmed these edges so that the pages of the book were uniform. Instead of throwing way the scraps of strips of gilded paper, they rolled the paper and created designs to decorate the covers of the books.

Filigree with paper, also called paper quilling, can easily be created to look like intricate gold or ivory carvings. When you look at pictures of book covers from the 19th and 20th centuries, you will see examples of this craft. It was at this time that the art work moved beyond religious uses, such as to decorate boxes. Some of the finishing schools for girls taught this craft as one of the subjects in the curriculum. During the Victorian era, it was quite common for daughters and wives of wealthy households spent their leisure time rolling paper to make various designs, usually flowers. No matter where they were they always had a quilling tool because they had hatpins they could use.

The examples of paper done during the 19th century were used to decorate wall sconces, tea caddies, and cribbage boards. They were also used to decorate family crests so that they had borders, flowers in the corners. At this time, this craft was known as paper mosaic and mosaicon. When colonists moved to America, they brought this pastime with them and used the strips of paper to add decorative touches to items in their homes. It was at this time it became known as quilling because the tool used was a goose quill. Some of the colonial women used porcupine quills.

In the 18th century, the practice of rolling paper was looked upon as a waste of time and many thought that young ladies would be better off learning how to run a household. The practice faded in favor of embroidery. It was not until the 21st century that the interest in paper quilling once again became popular with the interest in decorating pages used in creating scrapbooks. Although you can buy the paper decorations already made, many scrapbookers want to make every part of the scrapbook pages themselves.

Paper quilling is time consuming, but the results you produce from such an activity are well worth the effort. You can decorate invitations and cards in all kinds of flowers and designs reflecting the elements of nature such as animals. There are basic shapes involved in quilling and by using variations of these techniques, you can make many others.

For more information on paper filigree, instructions on how to paper quill and lots of quilling techniques visit http://www.MyPaperQuilling.com

Paper quilling is the art of rolling strips of paper and forming designs from the coils. It does take time to create a quilled design because the strips are so narrow, ranging from 1/8 inch to one inch and only about three or four inches long. However, it is not hard to learn how to quill and anyone of any age can do it – even children. This is not a new craft. It has been practiced since the invention of paper in an attempt to replicate the intricate designs made from gold and silver.

Quilling, today, can be used for many different reasons. The most common is to decorate greeting cards and to decorate pages in scrapbooks. Quilled designs can be glued onto backgrounds, framed and hung on the wall. Some people use them on gift tags, as a decoration for invitations and thank you cards or to add a decorative touch to a photo album.

The first step in quilling is to cut paper of different colors into strips. The most commonly used paper is construction paper or cardstock. Although you can use ordinary paper, this thin paper tends to bunch when youroll it and it will tear easily. You need a quilling tool to wind the paper around. While you can buy a special tool for this purpose, you can basically use any small thin object, such as a needle or a toothpick. For making roses, though, you will need a bought quill with a slot in the top.

You don’t need to cut the paper ins trips with a scissors if you don’t want to. Simply use a ruler to make sure you have all the strips the same size and holding the ruler firmly on the paper, you can tear the paper down the side of the ruler. Moisten one end of the strip of paper by just touching it to your lips and lightly press it to the edge of the toothpick. If you are using a quilling tool, you fit the paper through the slot at the top to help hold it in place.

Start wrapping the paper around the tool, winding it tightly as you go. Make sure you line up the edges and keep the coil of paper very straight. When you get to the end, gently slide the roll off the tool. If you want the coil to stay tight, glue the piece you have left to the roll as soon as you take it off. Hold it in place with your fingers until the glue dries. You can also use tweezers, especially if you are using Superglue, which will cause your fingers to stick to the paper.

If you want the coil to be a little bit looser than what it is when you take it off the quill, just let the roll go a little so that the paper relaxes a little. Watch the roll as it spreads out and when it reaches the looseness you want, then you can glue in the end piece. If you need several pieces to make a larger design, you will have to measure the coil so that you make all of them the same size.

For more information on how to quill as well as lots of great quilling ideas visit the paper quilling site http://www.MyPaperQuilling.com

Quilling is the art of rolling strips of paper around a simple tool to create elaborate designs that you can use as decorative touches for many different reasons. Although quilling is very time consuming because you are working with small items, it is one that is easy to learn. By combining paper quilling techniques, you can glue several designs together to make a large design.

The basic technique of quilling involves cutting a strip of paper about 1/8 inch wide and three to four inches in length. You need a needle or toothpick or if you wish you can buy a quill. Dampen the end of the paper, usually by licking it, and roll the strip of paper around the quilling tool of your choice. Roll it tightly and then remove the tool. Allow the coil to relax a little but don’t let go of it completely – just enough to let it expand a little bit. Glue the loose end of the paper in the center, so that the coil forms a circle. Pinch one side of the circle to make the shape of a teardrop. Then you can make four other teardrops and glue them together to form a flower.

Some of the standard quilling techniques are:
- Diamond Shape. To make a diamond you can either roll the paper around the quill very tightly or have it a bit loose. Once you make the coil, pinch two opposite sides. This technique is often called the marquis or the eye-shaped coil.
- Leaf. If you make flowers in paper quilling, you will want to add leaves to make the flowers stand out. To make a leaf, make the standard diamond shape and then pinch one or more ends of the diamond.
- Oval. To make this type of shape from the paper strip, wind it in a oval shape and take care not to pinch the ends.
- Square. This is another shape made from the basic diamond. Once you have the diamond made, pinch the smooth sides of the diamond to form a square.
- Rectangle. To make a rectangle, you first have to make an oval. Then you pinch the corners to make the shape of a rectangle.
- Star-shaped leaf. To make a leaf that looks like a star, you first have to form a diamond. Take hold of the ends and push them in toward the center so that you form two new points and there will be a curve between these new points.
- Triangle. Form a loose coil to make a three-sided shape. To make this triangle look realistic, you need to try to keep the center as round as you possible can.
- Closed Heart. First you form a triangle, pinch the sides and then push one of the sides inwards to form an indentation.
- Half Moon. Form a loose coil and pinch it on two sides while you keep your finger on the middle of one of these sides to form an indentation.
- Tulip. Form a loose coil on two sides and push one side toward the center.

For more information on quilling techniques, how to paper quill and other paper quilling related topics visit http://www.MyPaperQuilling.com